The best of the Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes: Barnaby.

barnabyBarnaby. Barnaby was created by Crockett Johnson and appeared in the comic strip “Barnaby” (1942-1952, 1963). Barnaby Baxter is a five-year-old somewhere in suburban America. Barnaby wishes for a fairy godfather and gets one, Jackeen J. O’Malley, who is an actual fairy. O’Malley can grant wishes with his magic wand, but often he is too busy smoking his cigar or expounding on his current interest (finding information on pixies, turning The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire into a screenplay, or trying to teach other children to fly) to successfully make his magic work. Barnaby’s parents don’t believe that Mr. O’Malley exists, and neither Barnaby nor Mr. O’Malley ever successfully demonstrate that he does exist, but that does not stop Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley from helping Barnaby’s father’s office baseball team win a big game, or catching Nazi spies, or successfully running for Congress (where he is put on the Useless Papers Committee). The other inhabitants of Barnaby’s world are equally fantastic: the talking dog Gorgon, the invisible leprechaun Lancelot McSnoyd (who has a Brooklyn accent), Emmy Lou Schwartz, “Licensed Witchcraft Practitioner, 98, 413,” the ghost Jacob “Jake” Marley, and the shy ghost Gus. Sadly, when Barnaby turns six, he is told by his father that he is a big boy now, and fairy godfathers don’t appear to big boys. Mr. O’Malley looks this up in the fairy godfather’s handbook and discovers this is true, and is forced to say goodbye to Barnaby.

“Barnaby” is the most charming comic strip of the Golden Age of comic strips–witty and allusive, humorous and satirical, cleanly illustrated and delightfully written. Dorothy Parker compared the strip to Huckleberry Finn and said, “I think, and I am trying to talk calmly, that Barnaby and his friends and oppressors are the most important additions to American arts and letters in Lord knows how many years. I know that they are the most important additions to my heart.” Thankfully, there are authoritative reprints of volumes one and two available now.

(Why include “Barnaby” in an encyclopedia of pulp heroes? Because I had to include comic strips–my obsessive-compulsive/encyclopedic obsession wouldn’t allow me to ignore them–and any listing of strips of the pulp era that omitted “Barnaby” would be incomplete. Plus, it’s a favorite of mine, and deserves any attention that can be brought to it).

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